New mystery novel explores K-9 bond

After he graduated from UC San Diego, Alan Russell worked as a hotel manager in La Jolla and wrote mystery novels at night until he’d become successful enough to make writing his full-time job. Or, as he sometimes jokes, his “fool-time job.”

Humor is a key part of his literary voice. In his new book, “Burning Man,” it shows up mostly in one-liners from LAPD cop Michael Gideon, scarred by a wildfire when he and his K-9 partner, Sirius, are chasing a serial killer. They’re still dodging flames — some real, some imagined — while they try to figure out who left a teen crucified in a park.

Russell will be at Mysterious Galaxy Sunday at 2 p.m. and at the Encinitas Library Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The Cardiff resident answered questions by phone.

Who were your early heroes and role models in the crime novel/mystery genre?

Well, I think most people start with Raymond Chandler, who turned a phrase better than anyone. Plotting-wise, he was not a master but as a writer he was. Then I started reading John MacDonald and Ross Macdonald. Agatha Christie. Those were early must-reads.

Why does the genre remain so popular?

Part of it is the world is changing so quickly and I think the constant of a protagonist who is trying to make right out of wrong is important. The whole thing about good vs. evil. The protagonist might have a lot of warts and flaws, but I think typically they are trying to make a right out of wrong, and I think that’s something that people can identify with. They want to think there are still good people trying to do good things.

How you make your novel a whodunit, how you make it still compelling, that changes, though. Technology is changing. As a writer you have to be aware of those changes because you don’t want to dumb it down for the reader. I’ve read stories where I go, “Well, why didn’t the detective just do this and this and then solve the crime?” You really want to write a smart story for smart readers.

Where did the idea for the new book come from?

I have a love of animals. I have three dogs and a cat in the current household. The bond of human to animals, that interaction, has always fascinated me. You might notice in the book, instead of calling Sirius a dog I refer to him as “my partner.” I’m doing that purposely because I think cops and their canines, there’s a special bond and they work together as a team.

I’ve mined my backyard a lot. Probably more than half my books are set in San Diego. My first two were in San Francisco, and I found an interesting thing. When you set a novel in a city you don’t know as well as your own, you tend to look at it with open eyes and you see things you might not even see in your own city. So for me, sometimes taking a book and putting it in a new place gives it a different look.